Obviously classy

If you’re anything like most people, you’ve gone through a period where you hated your name. Maybe you’ve sworn, as I did, that if you ever got the chance to name your own child, you’d do much better than your parents did.

I decided on my daughter’s first name a long time ago, so I’m lucky that the husband has similar taste. But what does our choice of names say about our taste exactly?

According to the book Beyond Ava & Aiden (the updated version of Beyond Jennifer & Jason), the name Natalie is glamorous, vintage chic, and feminine. It is also serious and grown-up, a name “your daughter may thank you for as she gets older.” And it reveals that Matt and I have a touch of Yuppy in us.

Natalie’s middle name — Claire — is all of those things, as well as “obviously classy.” Nice to know!

None of this guarantees that Natalie will like her name. The name Frances is a hipster name that is both serious and vintage. And although it has been “over looked by the masses,” it “has class to spare.” None of which changes my opinion, of course.

If you want to know what your child’s name reveals about you (or what your name reveals about your parents!) find Beyond Ava & Aiden at your local library or bookstore. Or ask me to look it up. I totally will.

New ride!

The lateness of this post is embarrassing, but here it is… finally.

In 2004, I bought a gently used Ford Focus out of sheer necessity. I had totaled my beat-up ’92 Escort and needed a ride fast. Without help from a father or husband (but with some help from a best friend), I found the perfect car for me. It was blue, had low mileage, and I could afford it on my meager salary. Plus, with four doors, it was kind of an upgrade.

Six years later, having gotten married, moved three or four times, and had a baby, I found myself needing more from my car. It didn’t fit the car seat, and barely fit the stroller… forget about groceries.

I researched for months to find a car I liked that was in our budget. I wanted something in the crossover family: not a behemoth, but bigger than my sedan. Something with good gas mileage and better safety ratings. I missed the sunroof from my old Escort, so I definitely wanted one of those. Also, I had never had a car with cruise control, power windows or power locks, and I wanted all three. And of course, it had to fit the car seat. That I found a new car with a kickin’ sound package was a huge bonus. That it was priced to sell was an even bigger bonus.

We bought it the same day we test drove it. Natalie came along, and gave it her seal of approval — she didn’t cry the entire test drive! Matt came with me, but the only opinion he gave was that it was going to be my car, so it was going to be my choice.

(I also made sure the back seat could fit three car seats across. You never know! ;)

Things I have learned from being a mommy

3. Your time suddenly becomes a lot more valuable.

Pop Quiz: You get home from work around 6:15 pm. You have one hour and 15 minutes before your baby goes to sleep. You choose to:
A. wash the dishes.
B. cook dinner.
C. cuddle with, play with, or take a walk with your baby.
D. update your social networking sites.

Maybe you are thinking, “That’s a cinch! I could put him in his swing in the kitchen while I make dinner. We could sing silly songs while he watches mommy be silly dancing around.”

That is a great idea, and I’ve tried it a couple of times. But when your baby is in his swing while you’re cooking — no matter how much of an effort you make to interact with or entertain him, there are going to be times you’re more focused on the cookbook, the sink, the stove, the oven, the cutting board than on your baby.

Once I became a mother, my free time completely disappeared. Not because I had no free time, but because the free time that I did have I wanted to spend with my daughter. (Or, after she goes to bed, with my husband.) Even running errands during my time with Natalie feels like I’m cheating both of us, because I can’t see her or really interact with her at all.

Although maybe at least grocery shopping will be more fun now!

Natalie's first shopping cart ride (5-9-10)

Cheating in the Kitchen

On a local message board for working mommies, a fellow poster mentioned Once A Month Cooking (OAMC). The theory is that you clear a day (probably a Saturday), have your ingredients ready, and cook up a storm. In one day, you should be able to get 30 dinners made — enough for the whole month. That’s the story anyway.

Turns out, I’m not that hard core. Matt and I have been trying OAMC in a less strict form. We don’t cook 30 dinners in one day. We cook, maybe 3 or 6 dinners at a time several times a month. Either way, the result is the same: dinner that is ready when you are. Here is one recipe we have tried and loved.

Chicken Tucson

1 (20 oz) jar salsa
2 (16 oz) cans black beans
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups cooked, cubed chicken breast
6 corn (we used flour) tortillas
2 cups shredded cheddar (I ran out and subbed in pepper jack)
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Spread 1/2 cup salsa in 9×9 inch baking dish and set aside. (I don’t have any 9×9 baking dishes, so I use whatever’s closest.) Drain black beans and rinse well; drain again. In large bowl, combine beans, bell pepper, chicken and remaining salsa. Mix well.

2. Place 3 tortillas on salsa in bottom of baking dish. Top with half of chicken mixture and sprinkle with half of cheese. Top with 3 more tortillas, then remaining chicken mixture. Either cook now or freeze for later. See instructions below.

To cook and serve immediately: dollop with sour cream, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 25 to 35 minutes until bubbly and cheese begins to brown.

Instructions for freezing, thawing and cooking later: Cover and label. Reserve sour cream in refrigerator. Place remaining cheese in zip-loc bag, attach to baking dish, and freeze.Thaw overnight in refrigerator. (Ours needed thawing over TWO nights.) Place small dollops of sour cream on casserole and top with cheese from zip-loc bag. Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and cheese begins to brown.

Happy Easter!

I don’t think I’ve ever sent out an Easter card until now. But sending out cards for random holidays is more enjoyable now that Natalie is here. In fact, I have come to appreciate that Natalie makes everything – yes everything – a lot more fun. Even though having a baby means getting up at 2:30 in the morning on a regular basis. Or having to stand in the back of a packed church because (1) there is no room to sit and (2) if the baby cries, I need a quick escape route. Or going to family functions where Natalie will be fussed over and played with until she becomes overstimulated, starts to cry, and needs her mommy to cradle and sing softly to her.

Even though it’s a lot more work, it’s also so much more fun.

Things I have learned from being a mommy

2. Settled down is actually kind of nice.

When Matt and I were dating, I told him point blank that I did not want children. I furthermore did not want to be tied down to a life of boring domesticity. I wanted to travel (I had just gotten back from a four-week tour of the British Isles). I wanted excitement and adventure ’round every turn. I did not — NOT — want to settle down.

Luckily, he wore me down. I’m not saying it’s not the right path for some people, but getting out of the Army was the best decision for us. Watching Matt in the morning with Natalie, I am so grateful that he is here. I am so grateful that he will never miss a birthday. Or Christmas. Or dance recital. He will be available to chaperone field trips and ferry her to soccer practice. He can teach her the intricacies of baseball and long division. And — when she’s older — boys. Because she will probably go to an all-girl’s high school, he will be available for those Daddy-Daughter dances that my cousins are so fond of now. He will be the one to teach her to make snow angels in Winter and how to execute a perfect cannonball dive in the Summer.

And although it’s so so important to both of us that she knows who he is, I am also grateful that he knows who she is. I don’t want her to be stranger to him either. My mom hasn’t seen her granddaughter since she was about 3 weeks old. Of course, she remembers Natalie. Of course she has watched her grow in pictures and, soon, will watch her on a webcam. But if you ask her, she’ll say it’s just not the same.

Army life is rewarding in other ways. I’m grateful for Matt’s involvement in Natalie’s life, that’s all. I feel blessed to have my family together and safe. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

920 -- Things I'm loving these days

1. The rain. It is nature's car wash. Plus it smells good.
2. The PSI monitor on my car. I'll leave you to your inferences.
3. These to do list note pads from prettybitter.com. I appreciate their honesty. (PS My birthday is coming up!)
4. Moms Like Me. After searching high and low for a full time working mom online support group, I finally stumbled on this (all local!) site. They have already helped me through one low point.
5. My darling daughter. Despite sickness, exhaustion, and general icky feelings, she manages to be amazing every day. We should all be so lucky.
6. My new fabric softener scent. Hey, it's all about the little things, right?
7. My husband. He works really hard, and never (hardly ever) complains. I have a lot to learn from him.
8. Custom return address stamps like these. Because labels are so last decade. Did I mention my birthday is coming up?
9. Bath time. Natalie's bath routine is the time we are guaranteed every day. We pick out her clothes, get some tub time in, and she talks up a storm. Afterwords, I feed her and sing to her. Sometimes she sings along.
10. Friends who call more than a month ahead of my birthday to ask what my plans are and if I want to get together to celebrate. They don't need no stinkin Facebook reminder! Thanks friend :)

Anything you're loving these days?

808.882 -- Nerdy Librarian Quote

"When you handle books all day long,
every new one is a friend and a temptation."
-- from The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

649.1 -- Things I've learned from being a mommy

1. A very very clean house is not necessarily a home

Of course it's necessary that Natalie has a clean place to grow and thrive. Clean clothes to wear. Clean bottles from which to drink. And a clean place to sleep. Does that mean it's important to vacuum the house every day? To scrub her bathtub after every bath? To sanitize her bottles after every feeding? Not to me. Will she mind if the dishes pile up or if her laundry never does get folded? She won't. And if she does, I hope she won't care.

What I hope she remembers are the trio of lullabies I sing to her at every bedtime. That I would rather cuddle and play with her than anything else. Even if she doesn't remember specific things, she will hopefully remember that she was always more important to me than chores.

I try to get Matt to understand this, but maybe one of us has to keep an eye on the dust bunnies.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby for babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

394.2618 -- Happy Valentine's Day!

747 -- Another New Addition

You might recall that we decided to overhaul our master bathroom weeks before our precious daughter was born. We thought we'd have plenty of time. I wasn't much help, other than painting and design decisions, so Matt had a lot of work on his hands.

The master bath before... desperate for an update.

After hearing from my OB that Natalie was likely to be a week late, I was confident Matt could finish on time. Then she came early. When we left for the hospital at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning, our new quartz countertop and Corian undermount sink were on saw horses in the kitchen. Which is exactly where we found them when we got back from the hospital 2 days later.

Matt dragged himself away from our little one long enough to install the sink, fit the plumbing, hang the vanity mirror, and install the glass shower enclosure. We now have a luxurious master bathroom to relax us after a long day, or revive us in preparation for a long night.

Viola!

Note the stone corner seat (Matt's idea) and the custom inserts on the wall (my idea). I'm especially proud of the vanity that Matt put together. He had to order a wall cabinet and customize it himself for our very small bathroom. The medicine cabinet/mirror was another project. Recessing it into the wall added "visual square footage."

I love our new bathroom. There isn't one thing I would change!

649.122 -- Welcome!

As you can see, I have one very good reason for being away from the blog. My beautiful daughter was born three days early, and we have been enjoying her ever since. You'll see more posts about Natalie in the coming months. For now, just consider this your introduction!

128.4 -- Waiting

The changing table and diaper bag are stocked.

Our hospital bags wait by the door.

The car seat is ready.

Now that we have entered the two-week warning period, our little one might come any time. Nothing left to do but wait ... anxiously!

641.568 -- Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Last year, my side of the family gathered at our little house for a huge Thanksgiving dinner. We shoved two large and two smaller tables together, draped several table clothes over the whole thing, and broke out the chaffing dishes for the biggest dinner party our house has ever seen. To accompany the traditional pumpkin and apple pies, I made a pumpkin cheesecake that brought oohs and aahs from the entire table.

When I first stumbled across this recipe, I thought baking a cheesecake would be much too involved a process for me. In the end, I love cheesecake and pumpkin, so I gave it a try. Although the original recipe says that you can make it without the use of a springform pan, I recommend buying a cheap one anyway. (I say a cheap one, because really how many times are you going to make cheesecake?)

This year, I'll be making this recipe again, but for Matt's side of the family. Hopefully it will become a Thanksgiving tradition!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients

18 gingersnaps, crushed (about 2 cups)

1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup butter, melted

3 pkg. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Dash ground cloves

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Combine gingersnap crumbs, nuts and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
2. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each just until blended. Remove 1 cup batter and set aside. Stir remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices into large bowl of batter. (At the end of this process, you should have a large bowl of pumpkin batter and a smaller bowl of plain cheesecake batter.)
3. Spoon half the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half the plain batter. Spoon in the remaining pumpkin batter, followed again by spoonfuls of the plain batter. Swirl with knife for a marbled effect.
4. Bake 45 minutes or until center is almost set. (If you cook it even a little too long, the top will crack as it's cooling, but it won't affect the taste as far as I can tell.) Cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

306.8743 -- Working Mothers' Guilt

In several months, after the baby is born and FMLA leave is exhausted, I will have to return to work. I will have to leave my baby in the arms of a stranger. I know this won't be easy. In fact, I expect to be seized with guilt. So I'm trying to prepare early, and I'm starting with day cares.

I had hoped that finding the right day care would ease my anxiety, but after looking at a couple of places, neither one felt right. A coworker has since recommended her child care provider, so maybe my biggest problem is already solved.

Still, leaving a baby with even a trusted person is not the same as being home. How do people do this?

747.77 -- Baby Space

The nursery is finally finished! Would you like a tour?!

These three prints are from my mom. She found them at a "charity shop" in England. (Also -- new ceiling fan! :)


This view is my favorite. I love the furniture and bedding we picked out, and the curtain sheers are my favorite part of the whole room (though I know you can't see the cuteness in this picture). The baseball mobile may not match the room, but it is totally personal. The wall above the crib says, "Everyday holds a possibility of a miracle."


My dad bought this rocking chair for my mom when they found out she was pregnant with me. Matt had it repaired and refinished when we found out we were pregnant. I had to weed the baby books we had. They didn't all fit on our bookshelf!


This is the wall above the changing table. I was able to rip apart some old classic Pooh books to make these framed prints. And of course a Willow Tree... I love those!


Most of the toys won't see use for several months of course, but the baby will have lots of plush options to choose from. The basket is full of gifted blankets for our winter baby -- most of them were handmade!


See the plush green rug in front of the crib? Charlie has taken to laying on it as his go-to spot. When he is scared or bored or tired or when we are working in the nursery, he goes to that rug and curls up. It's so cute!

618.2 -- The Final Countdown

After so long, the very last month of pregnancy has begun. Technically, that was on November 8th, but I was celebrating the bathroom over the weekend, so I'm celebrating the one-month mark today!

So... today marks four short weeks to my due date. To say I am looking forward to that glorious day is an understatement. Aches and pains have increased, as have day-to-day stresses and frustrations. The good news is that the nursery is one shelf away from being completely finished! (Where did I put those screws??) Look for pictures of the completed space on Friday if not before. I promise!

A sneak peak at the nursery and the final belly pic... unless I go past my due date!

004 -- The Serendipity Machine...

... also known as The Internet.

As I have mentioned to people who recommend tv shows to me, I do not have time in my life (or room on my DVR) for another series. That's not to say that new shows don't pique my interest. I was, for instance, intrigued by previews for FOX's series Glee. This is possibly because I am a music nerd from way back.

However, I was trolling the internet recently and read something that made my eyes bug out. Glee is set in Lima, Ohio?! Could this be? My own hometown? Who knew about this? Why was I not told?

I missed the premier of Glee, probably for one the other series I watch religiously. I do know that it was reasonably well received. According to Lima natives, the locale does not feature prominently, and it would be hard to guess where the show actually takes place other than a small Midwestern town. Despite this, I plan to Netflix this series during maternity leave -- because what else will there be to do? (hah!)

And that was my serendipitous discovery of the day.

747 -- Visible Progress

For the last two weeks, Matt has been working really hard on the bathroom. However, there hasn't been much visual progress until now. While I know all the work he's put in, any other person might look at the room now and think, "What've you been doing?" Well, here's what he's been doing:

When he tore up the ... well ... entire bathroom, he found some water damage to the plywood floor, so he put down all new plywood. The stack for the toilet stuck out of the wall at a funny angle, which prevented us from enlarging the shower the way we wanted to. He rerouted the stack so it wouldn't interfere. Our new sink will be higher than our old one, so he rerouted the plumbing for that. The shower plumbing needed to be moved back about 8 inches, so he almost completely rebuilt that. The mirror we had in the bathroom was not recessed, and our new one will be, so Matt framed out a cabinet in the wall. He also framed out two wall inserts in what will be the shower. Then it was time to install the new can lights and exhaust fan, requiring some time in the attic (never fun).

After all this was done, Matt used a combination of drywall and moisture-resistant cement board to make the walls, ceiling, and floor. He then installed the shower pan, and built a curb between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. We painted a water-impermeable concoction called Mapegum onto the shower floor and part way up the shower walls. (Mapegum takes 12-24 hours to dry completely, so it's a huge time suck!)

Somewhere in between all of this madness we made several trips to various hardware and home design stores. We picked out tile for the bathroom floor, the shower floor, and the shower walls, as well as the new vanity, counter top, sink bowl, and sink and shower fixtures.

Yesterday, we painted on another layer of Mapegum, filled in all the drywall holes and seams with drywall mud, and set the tile for the bathroom floor. (And managed to get the new ceiling fan installed in the nursery.)

Today we'll paint on a third and final layer of Mapegum, and sand and re-mud the drywall seams. Monday night, we'll tile the shower floor and curb. If there is time, Matt might also sand and mud again.

With only 1-2 hours each night to work on this project, of course it has been slow going. And it's hard for me to accept that so much prep work has to go into the project before the visible progress begins. I have no doubt we'll have a functioning bathroom by December, but getting there will include a lot more late nights for both of us!

747 -- Bathroom Remodel

Matt and I (but mostly Matt) have decided to undertake one final pre-baby home renovation project: The master bathroom. It's really needed an update ever since we moved in. Now that Matt is out of the National Guard, his evenings and weekends are a lot freer. And since he got a new job involving bathroom and kitchen remodeling, it seemed like the perfect time.

For the last few days we've been pricing vanities, counter tops, ceramic tile, and faucets. Matt is on a golf outing this weekend, so the project is on a temporary hiatus, but we expect it will be done before the baby comes. Below, see the "before" and "during" pictures... already a huge improvement!

Before ................................... During